Hello there!

[Steve M]

Hi everyone,

Ace website - I have found it really useful and learned loads. I am slowly shuffling towards a more self sufficient way of life. I grow a fair bit of veg and made my own Cider (which was nice) and Blackberry wine (which was as good but still did the job) last year.

Looking in to getting some chickens and making my veg growing more productive so any advice would be more than welcomed!

Cheers for now!

Steve

[greenbean]

Hi Steve M, we're all slowly (well I'm a bit slower than others here) working towards ss. Be lovely to share tips. take care, greenbean

[Wombat]

G'dAy Steve,

Welcome to the site! Yep we're all working towards being self sufficientish.

Nev

[IrishAbroad]

Hi Steve - let us know how the chickens pan out. Are you aiming for eggs or meat (or both). I've had mine 2 years now and have starting swapping eggs as they just keep laying. Gonna try incubating a few soon.

[shiney]

Welcome Steve.

What's your recipe for cider or is it a trade secret?!

[IrishAbroad]

It is "Les larves du hanneton européen" or "Les vers blancs" - apparently my problem is not "les vers blancs" as I was told by my neighbour.

[IrishAbroad]

Oops, wrong thread

[ina]

Hi Steve

Maybe we can start a chicken race? No, not like that... It's just that I've been talking about getting chickens for weeks now and am almost nowhere nearer my goal. (At least I have an adress where I'll get them from, and I know exactly what my chicken shed will look like when it's finished...) I need a bit of pressure via competition - "let's see who gets them first" sort of thing! I know it's embarrassing, that I need that kind of incentive at my age.

Ina

[couscous]

Hi Steve and welcome

I used to keep chickens years ago but got really pee'd off with the fox having chichen take-aways. The brazen things would come in the day time right down to the house. I do miss them clucking around and would love to have another go. Anyone got any ideas for fox-proof enclosures?

[Steve M]

Thanks for all your warm welcomes and hellos,

I got my Cider recipe for John Seymore's complete guide to Self Sufficiency - which basically involved juicing loads of apples and putting them in a bucket for a few weeks to start to ferment, then filtering the lumps out, adding a table spoon of brewers years and some sugar and then leaving it in a warm place for a few moths - I was surprised how easy it was! I will post a more detailed recipe when I get a chance. I would definitely recommend the John Seymore book - they did have it on special at Amazon a few months ago as I bought a copy for my mother-in-law. It covers pretty much everything you'd need to know and is an excellent to refer to.

My plans for chickens are at a very early stage. I would like to build the coup and run myself and have some rough plans but that's about it. Foxes taking them does concern me so I want to make it nice and secure etc. I remember seeing Hugh Fearnly Wittingstall filling tights full of human hair that he had got from a hairdressers and placing these around his chicken enclosure. Apparently the human scent from the hair deters the foxes!